


Mother of Ensigns

by philipasgeorgiou



Category: Star Trek: Enterprise
Genre: breaker of inferiority complexes, hoshi is the mother of ensigns
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-09
Updated: 2020-07-09
Packaged: 2021-03-04 21:21:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 990
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25173043
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/philipasgeorgiou/pseuds/philipasgeorgiou
Summary: Ensign Joan Rivers cries in a hallway and Hoshi comes to her rescue.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 8





	Mother of Ensigns

The Commander's voice echoed through Joan’s head. “I expect better work from you.” She had never felt so small, so out of place. When she took this assignment she knew adjusting to life on a starship was gonna be hard, but she hadn’t expected to be such a failure. She knew she didn’t belong on the flagship of Starfleet, that she could never be good enough. 

She started to make her way to the mess hall, but tears started forming in the corners of her eyes. Soon she could barely see through the tears, so she sank down to the floor in a secluded corner of D-Deck. She sat there, feeling spacesick and miserable, crying until her throat was raw. All of the sudden she felt a hand on her shoulder. Though she didn’t know who it was, she fell into their arms. Slowly her chin stopped trembling and her tears dried up. She looked up at the person who saved h- oh my god. She was bawling her eyes out in _Lieutenant Sato’s_ arms. 

“I’m- oh my gosh- I’m so sorry.”

“No, please. It’s okay,” Lieutenant Sato smiled, “what’s bothering you ensign Rivers?” 

Remembering Commander T’Pol’s stern words she almost started crying again. “My survey of the star cluster wasn’t up to par. Commander T’Pol told me: “I expect better work from you” and I just felt so small and insignificant and I know I don’t belong here, on this spaceship but I-”

“Now hold on,” Sato said, “if you hadn’t been so incredibly accomplished already, you would not be serving on this starship. We pick our crew well.” Joan chuckled softly through her tears. “I’m serious. Remember your dissertation that the shape of the universe could in fact be a closed sphere?”

“Yes, I was practically laughed at by the entirety of the astrophysics world.” Joan couldn’t help but feel embarrassed about her naive ambition. As if she, a scrappy young kid could ever prove actual proper scientists wrong. 

“T’Pol read it, that is actually the reason why you’re here. I remember her saying, “this girl is going to get far if she continues to be as inventive as this dissertation is.”” Lieutenant Sato’s deadpan impression of T’Pol made Joan snort. Hoshi smiled as Joan saw her gently looking at her. 

“She is only hard on you because she believes you can achieve great things.” Joan let out a dry chuckle in disbelief. Sato continued: “She was always hard on me too. I got angry at her once, which is when she told me that she held me to a high standard because she knew I was capable of achieving it. I suspect that the same might be true of you.” 

Joan saw Sato smile a little, but whether it was at the memory of the moment or meant to reassure her she couldn’t be sure. Either way, Joan Rivers was no Hoshi Sato. She came nowhere near what Hoshi Sato had achieved, and a stroke of boldness made her say so before she could stop the thought in its tracks. “If I may be so frank, that’s easy for you to say, you practically invented the UT.” When she realised what she said, her face turned redder than the Vulcan sky, but luckily Lieutenant Sato didn’t seem to notice or care. 

“Not at the time,” Sato laughed, “back then, I was just an insecure ensign that felt like she was in way over her head. And I used to be terribly spacesick.” 

“What, really?” Joan looked at her in disbelief. 

“Yeah. I could only sleep on one side of the ship too.” 

Joan couldn’t help but smile at the idea of the famous voyager and celebrated exolinguist Hoshi Sato being spacesick. “Thank you,” she said softly.

“Commander T’Pol tends to express respect differently. I think if you revise your survey with her notes and apply your creativity and hand it in again tomorrow she will be pleased with your progress.” 

“Okay, maybe I’ll do that,” Joan said, “and thank you again.” 

Ensign Joan Rivers had asked Hoshi to come to the mess hall. She started to have dinner with Joan a while ago, the young ensign reminded her of herself so much. And recently, more ensigns joined them, talking about the pressures of serving on a starship, or sometimes just the latest gossip, it was a small ship after all. But they didn’t have anything scheduled for today, she thought. Yet when she walked into the mess hall she saw a beautifully decked table, even lit with candles, to her surprise. Her mouth fell open at the grandure of the table and the richness of the dishes on it. The smell of soup and pastries filled the hall, making it feel like the banquets she attended back when she studied in Europe. She couldn't help but feel the warmth that those banquets used to fill her with. The colleges of old she used to attend. 

Joan walked towards her with a grin on her face and said: “We know you don’t like surprises, but we really wanted to thank you for all that you’ve done for us.” 

Hoshi could barely believe that they could pull this off. “But this must have been so much effort.” 

“We all helped. And besides, we do it gladly for our resident mom of the ensigns.” 

Hoshi turned to Joan. “I’m sorry what?” 

Joan chuckled nervously, “y’know, mom of the ensigns, that’s what we’ve started calling you.” 

“Oh,” Hoshi said, not really knowing what to say, until she saw Joan’s nervous smile, “well in that case, go and wash your hands before dinner, my child,” it lightened the mood immediately.

Joan started laughing, “yes mom,” she said, exaggeratingly rolling her eyes. 

Merel walked towards Hoshi and said, exasperated, “Please sit, we’re all starving,” to the laughter of the other ensigns present.

Hoshi sat down gladly and smiled at the ensigns, _her_ ensigns.

**Author's Note:**

> pfff for some reason this took so long and it's not my favourite, but oh well. And as always, thank you to the Discord, y'all are amazing.


End file.
